


the jungian thing

by censei_wrong



Category: Alien: Covenant, X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alien: Covenant, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Androids, Body Horror, Body Worship, Captivity, Choking, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Extremely Dubious Consent, Lots and Lots of Death, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Robots with feelings, Stockholm Syndrome, slightly OOC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-26 16:36:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13239744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/censei_wrong/pseuds/censei_wrong
Summary: COLONIZATION VESSEL: COVENANTCREW: 14, +1 SYNTHETICCARGO: 2000 COLONISTS, 1140 EMBRYOSMISSION: Terraform and PopulateDESTINATION: Origae-6DATE: December 5th, 2104ETA: 7 YEARS, 4 MONTHSThe crew of theCovenant, still reeling from the loss of their captain, want nothing more than to finish their mission. When they receive a distress signal from an overlooked planet with all the right markers for survival, they feel hope. Mankind would survive.They just didn't anticipate the monsters.





	the jungian thing

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first foray into the X-Men fandom! i've been reading Cherik fics for ages now, and after Fassbender's performance in Alien: Covenant as the intense, obsessed, maniacal David 8 and the fiercely protective Walter, i knew that i had to write about that relationship and how it affects Charles. this fic is going to deviate from the Alien: Covenant movie's canon drastically towards the end to further expand on the relationship between Charles, Erik, and David 8. i really don't know how it's going to turn out, but i hope you'll stick around and enjoy the ride!

_-arles!_

He's dreaming of playing in his father's study again with Raven. The sunlight streamed hazily through the tall window, dappling the rich Turkish carpet. Charles sat sideways in his father's favorite leather ottoman, the one that he spilled milk on after an impromptu sword-fighting match with her. Raven was puzzling over her next move in a close game of chess, her chubby hands twitching in her lap. 

He smirked. "Come on, Raven, it's been ten minutes!" Raven scowled and told him to shut up, her mouth screwed up in intense concentration. 

Charles felt a familiar surge of affection and comfort deep in his heart, and tilted his head back, watching the dust motes dance through the air. 

_Charles! -ake up!_

Charles is violently shaken awake, and took a painful breath of smoke and chaos into his lungs. There's sparks, flashing red lights, the surreal scene of his fellow crew members retching on the floor. There's the muffled sounds of panicked yelling and a high-pitched alarm somewhere, but Charles can't seem to focus on either. 

"For God's sake, Charles, look at me! Can you hear me?" Hank's pallid face, sweaty with terror, suddenly loomed before him. He grabbed Charles' legs in order to roughly pull him out of the sleep pod. 

All at once, the fear (something has gone terribly wrong) sets in, sending his heart rate through the roof. Charles looked around with a renewed sense of urgency.

Hank helped Charles stand, even though he is shaking violently. "There's damage to the ship! A power surge! We've got to get Logan out!"

 _Logan?_ Charles turned around to see Sean and Scott hammering and shouting at the glass top of Logan's pod, which is still sealed. He surged over in one quick movement, and quickly typed in the opening command on the module, but nothing happened. He pulled, _pulled_ , at the edge of the pod, ignoring the sharp pain in his fingers. Sparks are ricocheting off his flimsy cryo-suit and Charles can see Logan stir, wincing in pain beneath the glass. The screen turned red, emitting a harsh warning sound that only served to heighten Charles's panic.

"Get him out!" Charles roared, his heart beating rabbit-like in his chest. Alex shoved him aside holding a fire axe, and with a yell, brought the blade down on the pod's locking mechanism. It warped under the blow but doesn't break. Inside the stasis pod, more smoke is billowing from the vents and Charles can barely see Logan's face and-

" _No!_ " Charles wailed as fire engulfed Logan's body in a flash. He watched in mute horror as Logan is burnt alive, his flesh curdling in the intense flames. He can feel the awful heat permeating the glass and scorching his hands. 

Hank tore him away from the pod and crushed him in a vice-like embrace as Charles screamed. His chest felt like it was been crushed under a hundred-ton weight, but he still has air in his lungs to cry out. The awful grief seized his every nerve and the only thing he can think of is the blistering flames choking the life from his husband. 

Charles found that he couldn't breathe. He took in breath after juddering breath of stuffy cabin air, but couldn't seem to expel any of the carbon dioxide building up in his burning lungs. His vision went blurry and dark around the edges, and Charles suddenly lost control of his body, collapsing onto the floor. He couldn't live, couldn't breathe without Logan by his side. 

Hank noticed and released him immediately. "Charles? Charles! You need to breathe, okay? Breathe!" 

He can't. It's too much, too soon. Charles wanted to cry out, punch something, or implode all at once, but his body didn't respond to him anymore. 

Hank moved, and is replaced with Erik. His calm blue eyes tunnel into Charles', delving into his consciousness and pulling Charles back to the present. Erik gripped Charles' hands in his own.

"Charles, you must breathe. Just listen to my voice. One in, one out." Charles found himself automatically obeying, his lungs taking in and expelling air. The painful knot in his chest abated just a little. 

Erik smiled and touched Charles' forehead. His skin was cool against Charles' own too-hot skin (the heat, God, the _heat_ ), and it helped ground him in the present. 

Charles' heart was still racing when Erik stood to offer him a hand. "Can you walk?" he asked. Charles nodded, and pulled himself up. 

"We must evacuate the room in the event that another fire will break out," Erik stated. "Mother will give us the all clear once it is safe to clean up." As if to punctuate his point, fire retardant flooded Logan's pod, concealing the burnt body within. Charles buried in his head in Erik's chest, unable to look at the cryo-pod holding his dead husband inside. 

Charles is unsure of how he gets to his room, but he's helped onto his austere bed. A chair and desk were pushed up against the wall opposite. Stacks of books and papers occupied every available square inch on the floor, containing years of research that Charles had devoted his life to. Above his bed, he had tacked up pictures of Raven and Logan back on Old Earth. He used to touch his loved ones' smiling faces in the photographs when he was feeling particularly homesick, remembering the precious moments each image captured. Now Charles could barely look at Logan's toothy grin without wanting to throw up.

"Would you like me to stay, Charles?" Erik said softly. Charles shook his head no. He was afraid that if he spoke, his heart would rip at its seams and his terrifying, consuming grief would come flooding out. No, Charles would bottle it up inside, keep his misery locked up. He wouldn't be able to function otherwise. 

Erik left, and the door sealed behind him with a quiet _snick_. Charles curled up in his bed and tried to remember how to breathe. 

\---

_All senior staff, please report to the wardroom in thirty minutes. Thank you for your promptness._

Mother's voice yanked Charles out of his semi-conscious stupor. Everything felt awful, from the sheen of sweat still coating his skin to the sourness in his mouth. A shower was definitely in order.

He headed to the communal showers, his shoes padding silently on the brushed steel floors. The glass door hissed open silently, and the residual heat in the air told Charles that the other crew members had already cleaned up. He showered quickly, not wanting to keep his mind idling. 

Charles pulled on his mission jumpsuit and walked around the ship despite his damp hair, performing a basic review of the _Covenant's_ functions. It looked like their auxiliary systems took a lot of damage but luckily, the terraforming modules were still intact. Charles blew a sigh of relief. The modules were crucial to making the colonists' environment habitable and they would have surely lost hundreds without them. With the information, he headed to the wardroom. 

The wardroom was where the crew normally held meetings and spent most of their time when they weren't in cryo-stasis. It was a place where they could forget that they were sent on the vestiges of hope that humanity possessed, to begin a new era of mankind. Now, the crew members could only linger awkwardly, nursing cups of coffee and listlessly playing card games. 

Charles approached Hank, an intelligent and dependable pilot who became one of his closest friends. They had bonded over their mutual love for biology during their training and were an inseparable pair from then on. Logan always called them 'brainiacs' or 'dweebs' or whatever affectionate nickname he liked that day when he saw their heads huddled together, poring over the latest study. Remembering Logan's soft grin causes a little bit of Charles' heart to rot away. 

"Charles! How are you holding up?" Hank asked apprehensively. His hands dance around, looking for something to fiddle with.

He couldn't handle Hank's clumsy sentiments right now despite his good intentions. "Fine," Charles replied with a tight smile. "Any news about what happened?"

"Well, it looks like a power surge fried most of our electronics. All stuff that we can fix, but I still have no clue what caused the damage. We'd have to wait for Erik's debrief," Hank explained. 

Charles nodded. Erik was the synthetic crewmember responsible for monitoring the ship while the rest of the crew was in stasis. 

Shaw walked in, surveying the tense atmosphere. "I can't tell you," he began. "How monumental this loss has dealt our crew. Logan... will be remembered and sorely missed. And he would've wanted us to carry on his legacy and complete this mission." Sweat beaded on his forehead. The air conditioning was down. "I'm gonna try my best to live up to his... example. As captain. And I am grateful in advance for your support." 

He could feel the bile bubbling up his throat as Shaw gave his falsely sympathetic speech. Charles could only feel contempt for Shaw, who always had his eye on the captain's position. The snake was never content with following Logan's orders, and never failed to voice his dislike of Logan's "methods". Shaw thought that no one saw the slight sneer that fouled his mouth when Logan turned his back, but it was no secret that the crew was aware of their rivalry.

Charles couldn't bear to see two-faced Shaw take up Logan's mantle, stand at the head of the table with victory tainting his words. 'Sorely missed', his fucking _arse_. 

"So, we've lost 47 colonists and 16 second-generation embryos and obviously," A pause, heavy with unspoken words. "One crew member. The current structural integrity of the Covenant is holding at 83%, but we have many secondary systems in need of repair."

Alex asked the question that the entire crew wanted the answer to. "So what was it?" 

"A highly charged shockwave from a nearby stellar ignition," Erik replied, his face smoothly blank. "When the sails deployed for recharging, we absorbed most of the blast."

Shaw sighed. "Walter, I want you and Mother to conduct a complete core code review so we can understand why this happened in the first place."

Erik frowned slightly, the corners of his lips turning down. "It was a random localized event, sir. There's no way to detect a spontaneous stellar fire until its too late."

Most of the crew were nodding in support of Erik's statement. In space, there were some tragedies that you just couldn't avoid. 

"It was bad luck," Hank said, spreading his hands. 

"Alright, McCoy, I don't believe in leaving it up to luck. I prefer that we be more capable and prepared than lucky," Shaw glared at Hank, who stood his ground. Charles internally patted him on the back. "Observation, reflection, faith, and determination; in this way, we may navigate the path as it unfolds before us." 

Even Emma looked bored of Shaw's posturing. 

"And we have only eight or so more refuel cycles to go before Origae-6?" The question hung in the air before Erik replied. 

"Is that a questio-" Erik was interrupted by Shaw who muttered, " _Yes_ Erik, that was a question." 

"Yes, that's correct," Erik replied. Charles thought he could detect a hint of distaste in the line of Erik's eyes, but synthetics weren't built to experience feelings of displeasure towards humans as far as he knew. 

"Then let's get to work," Shaw announced, clapping his hands together. The crew started to shuffle away, readying themselves for long hours of repair, but Darwin interrupted.

"With all due respect... sir, we just lost 47 colonists _and_ our captain. I think that we need to acknowledge that," Darwin explained, his arms crossed over his muscled frame. 

Shaw's thin lips tightened in disapproval. "Look, I completely understand, but if we don't make these repairs fast, we will lose _all_ of the colonists." He had a hand out, as if trying to calm a wild bull. It only succeeded in making Darwin even more pissed, his nostrils flaring. 

"Yeah, I second that, we should do something for Captain Logan at least-" Hank began, but Shaw cut off his thought with a swift shake of his head. 

"This is not a discussion, Hank. We can't afford to risk our mission." 

Charles felt hot tears prickling his eyes. It hurt so much to see Shaw standing where Logan should be, dictating what they should or shouldn't do. He had no right to say that the crew couldn't mourn their captain, that he couldn't mourn his _dead husband_. But anger was an emotion that took vitality, and Charles felt as if the last few hours had drained him of his energy. He only wanted to curl up in a ball and shut out Shaw and his preachy words. Feeling as if the wardroom's walls were closing in on him, Charles blurted out the first thing he thought of. 

"The terraforming modules are stable, but the, uh, connecting strut took some damage. I still have to check the vehicles," he babbled, wringing his hands fretfully. Charles looked down at his small hands and imagined that a larger pair of scarred hands were covering his. 

"I can help," a calm voice offered. Erik. Charles cast his glance at him. "If you'd like."

A small, painful knot in his throat caused his 'Thanks' to become strangled and tiny. But Erik, saint that he is, only nodded in affirmation and turned his attention back to Shaw. 

"Erik, how long do you estimate before we can make the next jump?" Shaw asked. 

"The repairs should take approximately 48 hours, but we should make an effort to vacate this sector in case of afterfires."

Shaw nodded. "Absolutely. I agree. So let's get to work and clean up this mess. Dismissed."

Next to Charles, Jean bristled a bit at the quick dismissal, mouthing ' _Dismissed?_ ' at Scott, her husband and communications officer. Charles doesn't blame her. 

Charles motioned for Erik to follow him. He had to keep moving forward, whether he liked it or not.

**Author's Note:**

> it's so difficult to write about spaceships when you don't know the first thing about spaceships. still, i hope that i did the movie justice. i'd really love any and all comments!
> 
> ps: i'm using the john logan script and the movie as references and oml. walter offers daniels a joint when she's crying about her husband in the original script. it's gold. if anyone could direct me to a more updated script that matches the movie, that'd be really great! 
> 
> come talk to me on tumblr: @lacunaehums


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